1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to a method to manage network printers and a network system using the same, and, more particularly, to a method to manage network printers capable of connecting object identifications such that network printers are compatible with one another, and a network system using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the growth and complexity of a network and the increase the number of print jobs using the network, network management is of great importance. A protocol used in the network management may be a simple network management protocol (SNMP).
In order to perform SNMP communication, an SNMP agent having information on a network element (NE) and an SNMP manager for collecting and managing the information are required.
The SNMP manager communicates with a plurality of SNMP agents, that is, SNMP agents 1 and 2, and has a database DB for storing network management information collected through the communication. At this time, in order to perform the SNMP communication, operations such as Get-Request, GetNext-Request, Set-Request and Response are supported.
Each of the SNMP agents 1 and 2 includes an object identification (OID) storage unit for storing OID for identifying an object such as information to be managed or a resource, a standard management information base (MIB) and a private MIB. The standard MIB and the private MIB have a hierarchical tree structure. The standard MIB has management information which is defined by an international certified institute and the private MIB has management information which is not defined by the standard MIB.
The SNMP agents may be network equipments such as a router, a personal computer and a printer.
When various types of network printers manufactured by the different companies are mixed in a single network, the private MIBs of the SNMP agents, which respectively correspond to the network printers manufactured by the different companies, are different from one another. Accordingly, managing the various types of network printers manufactured by the different companies by the SNMP manager is difficult.
FIG. 1 is a view illustrating an operation in which a conventional manager server 10 communicates with network printers 1 and 2 (20A′ and 20B′). When the network printers (20A′ and 20B′) manufactured by the different companies are connected to the single network, as illustrated in FIG. 1, the host device 10, which functions as the SNMP manager, communicates with a network printer 1 (20A′) corresponding to the SNMP agent 1 and a network printer 2 (20B′) corresponding to the SNMP agent 2 and collects information to manage the network printers 20A′ and 20B′. For example, the respective SNMP agent 20A and 20B may reside in the corresponding network printer 20A′ and 20B′.
The OID of an address ipAddrinfo(1) of the network printer 1 20A′ manufactured by the company A is 1.3.6.1.4.1.236.2.1.1 and the OID of an address ipAddrinfo(3) of the network printer 2 20B′ manufactured by the company B is 1.3.6.1.4.1.512.3.1.3.
Referring to FIG. 1, when the host device 10 transmits an SNMP Get (IP address with the OID 1.3.6.1.4.1.236.2.1.1) to the network printers 1 and 2 (20A′ and 20B′) in order to obtain address information of the network printers 1 and 2 (20A′ and 20B′), the network printer 1 (20A′) searches the private MIB, recognizes that the received OID is its own OID, generates a response packet including an address 192.12.12.12 of the network printer 1 (20A′) by a processing routine, and transmits an SNMP Get Response to the host device 10. Thus, the host device 10 receives the address 192.12.12.12 of the network printer 1 (20A′).
However, the network printer 2 (20B′) searches the respective private MIB, recognizes that the received OID is not its own OID 1.3.6.1.4.1.512.3.1.3 and transmits the SNMP Get Response to the host device 10 without performing an additional processing routine. Accordingly, the host device 10 does not receive the address of the network printer 2 (20B′). Accordingly, as illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, the host device 10 can provide the address of the conventional network printer 1 (20A′), but cannot provide a user with the address of the printer 2 (20B′) as displayed on a screen 550.
As described above, when the network printers 20A′ and 20B′ are manufactured by the different companies, the structures of the respective private MIBs of the network printers 20A′ and 20B′ manufactured by the different companies are configured to be different from one another. When the SNMP manager communicates with an incompatible network printer using the same OID, the SNMP manager cannot obtain desired information from the network printer 20A′ and 20B′.
The SNMP manager may collect desired management information using the respective OIDs corresponding to the network printers 20A′ and 20B′ from the various types of network printers manufactured by the different companies. However, management efficiency of the network printers deteriorates and takes a large amount of time to collect the desired management information.